La rédemption

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

La Rédemption (The Redemption) is an oratorio in three parts by Charles Gounod arranged for the first time in 1882.

Composition

La Rédemption is based on much earlier sketches, which were finished only after his publisher, Novello, arranged for its performances at the

martyrs of Korea in 1866.[2]

Theme

La Rédemption was a return to Christian-themed sacred music which Charles Gounod had adhered to since his time in Rome, or in Berlin when he wrote an oratoria on the subject of Judith in 1842, or during his time as organist for the Chapel of the Paris Foreign Missions Society.

In three parts, it is a meditation on the

Resurrection of Christ, the Pentecost or descent of the Holy Spirit on the Blessed Virgin Mary and the Apostles, and the Final coming of Christ in glory
.

Production

The 1884 Paris premiere featured Jean-Baptiste Faure.[3] Gounod considered this oratorio, and its sequel Mors et vita (1885) as his greatest achievements.[4]

An orchestration of the oratorio composed by

piano-forte score did not entitle any one to arrange orchestral parts therefrom and perform the work as being either that of the composer or the arranger, affecting the vexed question of copyright treaty between England and the United States at the time.[5] The controversy, beyond its bitterness, reveals the popularity of the oratoria which had rapidly conquered an audience in England and in America.[6]

Reception

Though the reception of La Redemption was contrasted, artists such a pianist

music critic Joseph Bennett. After hearing La Rédemption being played in Vienna, another music critic Eduard Hanslick wrote a bitter commenterary in the Neue Freie Press in which he said that he considered Charles Gounod had written his oratorio "more as a devotee than as a musician". Notwithstanding a certain amount of adverse criticism, has continued steadily to advance in popular estimation.[8]

Recordings

References

  1. ^ The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Music Michael Kennedy, Joyce Bourne - 2004 p297 0198608845 oratorios: La Rédemption (1868–81); Mors et Vita (1885). cantatas: Marie Stuart (1837); Gallia (1871). church music: Messe a tre (1841); ...
  2. Missions étrangères de Paris: 356. 1928 – via Bibliothèque nationale de France
    .
  3. ^ Karen Henson Opera Acts: Singers and Performance in the Late Nineteenth Century- 2015 1107004268 "He appeared in the French premieres of Gounod's La Rédemption (in 1884) and Mors et vita (in 1886).
  4. ^ Norman Demuth -César Franck 1949 p202 "The oratorios of Franck have their seamy parallels with those of Charles Gounod. La Redemption and Mors et Vita were considered by their composer as being his greatest achievements, his offering upon the Altar of the Christian Church."
  5. JSTOR 3356176
    .
  6. ^ Sparks, Jared; Everett, Edward; Lowell, James Russell; Lodge, Henry Cabot (1889). The North American Review. O. Everett. p. 754.
  7. ^ Liszt, Franz (1894). From Rome to the end. H. Grevel.
  8. ^ Burke, Edmund (1884). The Annual Register. Rivingtons. p. 101.